Australian Folklore Yesterday and Today: Definitions and Practices

Abstract

In 1993 there was published a milestone volume, 'The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore', edited by Graham Seal and Gwenda Bede Davey. This influential compendium had followed hard upon: the first issue of 'Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies', edited by Graham Seal and David S. Hults, in 1987; the various biennial folklore conferences of the Australian Folk Trust; and the appearance of Graham Seal's 'The Hidden Culture: Folklore in Australian Society' (1989; re-issued in 1993). This publication was the first attempt to provide a textbook in Australian folklore, and the first full-length analytical volume on Australian folklore as a whole. For June Factor's earlier and deservedly famous study 'Captain Cook Chased a Chook' (1988), had confined its analysis to children's folklore in Australia. G. Seal has argued that folklore is best understood as a historical continuum, a continuing and infinitely flexible tradition in which the forms may change but the process remains the same. Meanwhile, on 26 March 1986, the then Minister for Arts, Heritage and Environment had announced the establishment of the Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia. The minister appointed to the committee Hugh Anderson (folk publisher and scholar of ballads); Gwenda Davey (folklorist of early childhood and lecturer on folklore); and Keith McKenry (folk musician and folk poet). This world-travelling and consulting group tabled its report, 'Folklife: Our Living Heritage' on 14 August 1987, covering the designated tasks of surveying in some depth: 1. The nature, diversity and significance of Australian folklife. 2. Existing (institutional) arrangements for safeguarding that folklife and the need for new arrangements for (a) collection, documentation and dissemination of folklife materials; (b) support/development of folk arts, etc.